On Other Blogs Today: Metro Funding, Light Rail Ridership, the Viaduct Closure, and More

Our daily roundup.

1. The Seattle Times argues against the years-in-the-making cuts to King County Metro transit, making the case instead that King County Council member Rod Dembowski's untested, last-minute proposal to temporarily stave off cuts by implementing new "effiencies" and raising fares for a sixth time since 2008, is a better idea.

"Delaying hundreds of thousands of hours of planned service cuts for 2015 is fiscally prudent," the Times editorial board argues—which is pretty rich coming from a paper thatopposed a local vehiclie-license fee and sales tax initiative that would have actually provided sustainable funding for Metro (as opposed to a temporary Band-Aid) in the wake of the state legislature's embarrassing failure to pass a transportation funding package.

2. Meanwhile, the Seattle Transit Blog reports on a far more productive proposal by King County Executive Dow Constantine to encourage cooperation between Metro and Sound Transit, by increasing cooperation between the two agencies on transit service; by adopting "coordinated operations, maintenance, administration, transparency, and accountability measures" between the two agencies; and improving rider access to trip information, which isn't always clear across agencies.

3. Speaking of STB: The blog also reports on some great news from Sound Transit on Link Light Rail: Ridership on light rail, month over month, has grown 12 percent this year, a higher growth rate than the system has ever seen in the past.

According to STB, "Link’s 12 month moving average growth rate passed 12%. It’s been consistently over 11% since December of last year but now it has crossed over the 12% mark." They continue, "For a system that was supposed to be growing at 2-3% about now, that is impressive."

4. Apparently, according to school workers, food isn't a human (or even child's) right: According to KOMO, a student in Kent had his lunch thrown out because he didn't have 26 cents remaining on his lunch account. The student, who had 14 cents on his account (short of the 40 cents required to pay for a meal), was forced to go without eating for the day.

5. West Seattle Blog reports that Seattle city council member Tom Rasmussen sent a letter to interim Seattle Department of Transportation director Goran Sparrman and interim Seattle Police Department Chief Harry Bailey asking them why the city decided to close the Alaskan Way Viaduct for five hours between the Battery Street Tunnel and the West Seattle Bridge on Thursday.

The closure came in response to a two-car accident at just before 2pm near the Spokane Street Viaduct.

"There are lingering questions as to why this length of SR-99 remained close for so many hours when the accident occurred south of Spokane Street and there are exits from SR-99 at the West Seattle Bridge and at Atlantic Street," Rasmussen writes in the letter. "Closure affects traffic throughout Seattle not just those who would use the viaduct. Closure nearly shuts down the City."

6. Finally, Crank's cold, hard heart is warmed by the news, via Clutch, that there's a new app that allows women (or anyone, really) to give unwanted guys a fake number that will, when they're texted, send the unwanted suitor a quote from black feminist icon bell hooks, such as "If any female feels she need anything beyond herlsef to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency."

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